EA Deliverable: The User View

In 1992, ABC Consulting Company created an Information System Plan (ISP).Since then, the world continues to accelerate the rate of change.Internationalism, increased competition, environmental issues and a need for greater awareness, speed and flexibility have added to ABC Consulting Company’s business pressures.

Hundreds of computers are now in use at the Operating Companies, but the interaction among these computers is relatively small.ABC Consulting Company applications have been designed for specific tasks.In the past, the need for them to work together was not strongly felt.

In 1992, ABC Consulting Company decided to decentralize most of the business functions.Development of systems entails the automation of business functions.Technical change is not nearly as difficult as changing the way the user does business, and as the operating companies implemented new applications, a variety of architectures were implemented.

The result has caused problems for users of enterprise applications:

qin accessing data held outside their “own” system;

qin rolling out successful applications to operating companies that use different computers and architectures; and

qin providing and tracking such information as planning, budgeting, and environmental issues.

IS has its own problems: as hardware and software have evolved to provide more power and flexibility, the complexity has increased.It becomes essential to layer system software between the hardware (physical machines) and the applications seen by the user. Layering has helped make systems more cost-effective by including in system software many functions that used to be designed and built by application and system programmers. However, this creates other kinds of complexities and dependencies.For example, new applications are often dependent on specific database systems (triggers and procedures), operating systems, and protocols.Therefore, IS deals with diversity in two dimensions (refer to figure 1):

Vertically -- between applications and the systems

Horizontally -- between different applications

EWAS Stage 1 looked at the business pressures, the users’ needs, and the issues with Enterprise Computing.These documents are available for review.

·Influence an acceptable legislative and regulatory environment by anticipating issues and regulations

·Effectively communicate strategies and positions to all employees

Environmental Issues

qDemonstrating environmental leadership

qEnvironment regulations

Critical Success Factors

·Be proactive on environmental issues by sponsoring research and educating the public and employees

·Influence an acceptable legislative and regulatory environment

·Demonstrate environmental leadership

Responsiveness

qReact quickly to rapidly changing business environment

qReact to new customer demands

Critical Success Factors

·Use autonomy and decentralization as vehicles to best run unique business

·Use technology to improve service to operating companies

·Provide an I/T infrastructure which leverages productivity and improves performance

·Involve and empower employees.

For IS to assist the business, it must conquer:

oThe complexity

oThe time it takes to get applications into production

oInteroperability issues

oThe high cost of operations

At the same time, IS must provide

qData Integrity

qSecurity

qPerformance

(Most users will define this as the time it takes to display a resulting set of data in a form.Mainframe applications are usually designed to do this in less than two seconds, and after the initial enthusiasm of the graphical user interface, users insist on the same performance from client/server applications.)

dissimilar systems must operate smoothly together across the operating companies,

major investments, in systems and applications, which are fundamental in running the business, must be protected and integrated, and that

data from many sources must be brought together and made accessible.

This requires that data, application, and technical architectures to cooperate.This also requires the technology to use common hardware and software structures to enable the applications.It emphasizes the need to stress business infrastructure.

It is imperative that IS provide:

Interoperability

Platform independence

Integration

Technical simplification

by bringing all of this together in the infrastructure.

IS must get closer to the end-user than ever before.Delivery includes joint design, joint testing and joint implementation responsibility.Maintenance becomes continuous joint development.The relationship with the end-user is a critical success factor in providing sustainable benefits.

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